Bittersweet
by SladeJT
Summary: Vengeance is bittersweet, as a certain Beanish will soon find out.  Takes place between Paper Mario 2 and Super Paper Mario.
1. Hiding in Plain Sight

Bittersweet

Chapter One: Hidden in Plain Sight

It was late at night in the 8-Bit Tavern. It was Friday, which meant that the place was jam-packed with customers, many of them having their shifts as guards in the Koopa Castle had ended about four hours ago. This was a good way to hear what was going on in Bowser's domain. A couple voices could be heard over the clamour.

"And so I said to him, 'You can't do that! You'll need a Fire Flower and a Floro Sprout to make it work!' Heh... True story!" said a laughing gray-robed magikoopa.

"No way!" replied an astonished cloud-less Lakitu.

---

"Ugh, I am so glad that I don't have the Graveyard shift... If I had to work at this hour..."

"Augh! Koopatio! You know that my uncle's a Drybone!" the irritated Koopatrol shouted to her Clubba friend.

"Oops. Uh... I forgot, sorry."

---

"You want me to top you off, hun?" a sweet voice inquired.

"Eh?" This speaker was sitting at the bar. He looked a great deal like a teenage human, but his skin had a decidedly greenish tint to it, was almost completely bald. and wore a red sweatshirt and black pants.

"Do you want some more?" the waitress asked again.

"Ah. No, I'm good."

She smiled as she took the empty glass away. "Its been a pleasure having you around... You don't get into fights, which would lead up to more of the furnature breaking... You always buy drinks... But you are so quiet all the time... Is everything okay, Gerako?"

"Things are fine, Koopabella. I... appreciate your concern, but you have nothing to worry about."

She nodded as her nightly customer stood up. "You just get home safely, hun."

"Of course I will. I always do, after all." And with that, Gerako had walked out of the building.

A bit of a walk later, he began to talk to himself.

"Another fruitless night... Ah well, at least I know that the King of Fools is plotting to abduct Princess Peach tomorrow. I could use this to my advantage... I could search her castle while everyone is chasing after the Koopa Cruiser... Eeeyah ha ha ha ha!" As he spoke, he had a rather maniacal grin on his face.

He looked around to make sure that he was alone and not being watched and then uttered one short magical word. "Exigo."

And with that, 'Gerako' turned into a Beanish whose small form was hidden by a red cloak with a golden clasp.

"Eeeyah ha ha ha ha! I will be having the avenging of the one who is you, oh Great Cackletta! The Brothers of Finkratedness wil be tasting the poisonous dish that is being my revenge!"

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This was inspired by a dream I had regarding Fawful. In it, Fawful had taken on a form similar to the one in the story. And could cast very powerful lightening spells. Reason why he wasn't talking as he usually did while in his 'human' form was because the spell alters even his speech pattern.

Exigo is Latin for finish or complete. Well, I think it is. If you know otherwise, please do not hesitate to say it.

And this will be a multiple chapter story. LE GASP!


	2. So Much For Easy

Bittersweet

Chapter Two: So Much for Easy...

It was the next day and, as according to what he had gathered, Bowser did indeed attack the Mushroom Kingdom's capital, Toad Town, and take its princess from the confines of her castle. The wicked Beanish gleefully made his way up to the building in disguise.

"Halt! Who are you?" demanded one of the two guardshrooms at the broken castle gates.

Fawful looked over at him and frowned. "Gerako. I heard that the Princess was taken once more, and came to... offer my assistance in castle repairs." he replied.

The Mushroomer relaxed. "Oh thank the Stars! For a moment, I was afraid that we were getting attacked again. That would had been terrible..."

"It would indeed." Fawful said with a nod.

"The rest of the guards are assisting in the recovery. If you could send one of them back here, that would be great."

"I keep that in mind."

The two guardshrooms moved out of Fawful's way, allowing him to enter the ruined castle. Upon inside, Fawful could clearly see the damage that Bowser and the Koopa Troop had wrought. Broken glass littered the lush red carpets and marble floors. There were scorch marks everywhere, whether caused by bomb-ombs, by fire magic, or Bowser's fiery breath, it was impossible to tell. The once beautiful stained glass image of the pure-hearted princess was in ruins - this was probably where all the glass came from. Mushroomers, both clad in small suits of armor and in their normal clothes, were running around attempting to undo the damage. The most frantic was an old pale-yellow capped brown-spotted Mushroomer with a white mustache, purple vest with golden trim, and a brown cane with a invesely colored mushroom-head at the top. This was doubtlessly Princes Peach's steward, Toadsworth.

"No! Be careful with that!" he cried out just before a clumsy Mushroomer dropped a pale-blue crystal vase. "Those blooming Koopas... They do this every fortnight! Why can't they just... take a holiday or some such thing...?" the old Mushroomer lamented.

Fawful was about to head into the next room when Toadsworth spotted him. "Ah. Cheerio, my good lad."

"... Uh... hi?" Fawful was usure whether the old toad had greeted him or told him to get out of the way.

"I suppose that you're here to lend us a hand with the repairs? Oh, of course you are! The Guardshrooms would not had permitted your enterance otherwise. Now, I have to attend to the tuition of the helpers, otherwise there will be a tailback in the halls. Naz will assist you. Cheerio! Don't drop that! That belonged to the late queen!" And with that, the frantic Mushroomer dashed off, hearing someone shout about losing their balance.

A much younger Mushroomer wearing a blue vest with white trim and possessing a white cap with red stripes instead of spots. "Its pretty hectic here. Always is after another Koopa attack. I would be back in Rose Town by now, but I just had to help out. The moment the repairs are over, however, I am hitching a ride on the train and getting back to my mom and my little brother. Hopefully he's not playing with those silly dolls when I come back in." He laughed after he was finished.

"You are Naz?" 'Gerako' inquired.

The Mushroomer nodded. He was about to say something, but he stopped. After about two minutes, he finally spoke. "Are you the Mega Magus Gera? From the Glitzville Glitz Pit, I mean..."

Fawful grinned. "The one and only!"

Naz was definitely excited. "Oh man! It was awesome how you made mincemeat of the Mind Bogglers! Hamma, Bamma, and Flare had NOTHING on you! And the way you toasted the Koopinator was just great! You melted his armor with one spell!"

"Yes yes... please keep your voice down!" Naz's excitement over meeting the Champ of the Glitz Pit was drawing much unwanted attention.

But the thrilled Mushroomer would not be silent. "But why did you vanished shortly after beating the Rawk? You could had faced the Great Gonzalez! Oh man... That would had been a fight to end all fights!"

"Naz... Weren't you supposed to be helping me? This is not helping..." Fawful emphasized 'supposed' and both 'helping's. More of them were looking! This was not good, even with the disguise!

"Oh yeah! Oh this will be sweet! I'm helping the Mega Magus Gera! I'd like Gaz to beat that! He keeps saying that his doll helped Mario beat a giant talking sword, but he talks so much about his doll's little adventures..." Naz laughed as he guided 'Gerako' up the stairs. "Though there are many people helping, we have had to focus on the first floor. I hope you won't mind tending to the second floor." He pointed at the various rooms. "This door leads to the throne room. This one leads to the Treasury - it was untouched, luckly. This door leads to the guest bedrooms and the Rec Room. This one leads to the Royal Chambers, and this door right here leads to the bathrooms. Bowser's Troops really messed up the throne room, and since everyone else is far too busy with the first floor, it'd be great if you tended to the throne room. And with those spells of yours, I think that fixing it would be a snap!"

Fawful did not like the idea of being told what to do by a moronic... toad, but he he could use this to his advantage. After all, with no one up here, he could easily pilfer from the Treasury! It was a good thing that he brought his enchanted coin-purse with him... This would ensure that he could take what he wanted and leave without even the slightest change in the size of the bag. Eeeyah ha ha ha ha! "Of course. However... I would really appreciate it if you went back to the others. You'd just... get in the way. You don't want to be picked up and thrown around by a ash-collecting whirlwind, do you?"

"Oh..." started a dissapointed Mushroomer teen. "Okay. Well, at least I still can say that I helped you!" Having said that, he begrudgingly walked back down the stairs with his hands in his vest-pockets.

First to the Treasury and then to clean up the Throne Room. He didn't want any suspicion as to what he was really up to...

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Toadsworth is SO much fun to write for. He's BRITISH! Hehe.

British for Dummies:

Blooming darn, fortnight 2 weeks, holiday vacation, cheerio hello / good bye (in this case, hello), tuition instruction, tailback traffic jam.

Please keep in mind the color and the pattern on Naz's cap. White with red markings means that he's a bit of a coward and is happy to serve his kingdom. Stripes means that he's from Rose Town.

Naz drove me NUTS! I kept wanting to press on in the plot but he was all hyperly estatic about meeting the Mega Magus Gera. x-x; I'm writing a side-fic to this chapter titled 'Of Glitz and Glory'. Its about Fawful's time in the Glitz Pit, how he came to be in there, and has a flashback to Fawful's time as Cackletta's toady and a couple magic lessons. Until then... Just imagine it. xD


End file.
